“I can see now how deeply God's absence affected my unconscious life, how under me always there was this long fall that pride and fear and self-love at once protected me from and subjected me to.... For if grace woke me to God's presence in the world and in my heart, it also woke me to his absence. I never truly felt the pain of unbelief until I began to believe.” IfsWorldBelieveHeartLongI CanSelfPainFallFeltGracePrideSelf LoveMy HeartAbsenceUnconsciousAffectedProtectedUnbeliefGod's Presence Author:Christian Wiman
“The horrors have made the legend of Mandelstam and are inevitably the lens through which we read his work and life. But if there had been no Stalin and no purge, Mandelstam still would have been a poet of severe emotional and existential extremity.” IfsHas BeensMadeStillsEmotionalPoetHorrorLegendsExistentialSevereLensesExtremityWork And Life Author:Christian Wiman
“It is easy enough to write and talk about God while remaining comfortable within the contemporary intellectual climate. Even people who would call themselves unbelievers often use the word gesturally, as a ready-made synonym for mystery. But if nature abhors a vacuum, Christ abhors a vagueness. If God is love, Christ is love for this one person, this one place, this one time-bound and time-ravaged self.” PeopleIfsWritingPersonsMadeSelfEnoughUseEasyChristMysteryReadyComfortableIntellectualClimateBoundsContemporaryOne TimeVacuumsGod Is LoveUnbelieversSynonymVagueness Author:Christian Wiman